2013 – The Year of Serenity.

Happy New Year, fiends! I hope you had some fun last night, whether it was out with friends, working (as is the case with many musicians I know), or just hanging out at home, which is what we did.

And would you look at that: it’s the fifth HNY post from my little rat hole. RtB will be five years old in February. Never thought I’d stick to *anything* that long.

So, The Year of Serenity. Last year, I resolved to make some changes, and to my delight, when I looked back at that post this morning, I found I’d reached most of those goals with varying levels of success. It gives me peace.

The most challenging 2012 goal was spending less time at school when I didn’t have to be there. I achieved that in spades. Score! Other resolutions didn’t get as much attention, but I’m happy to say they all played an important part in my year, so I’m calling 2012 a win.

Except maybe in the “save more money for retirement” area. Haha. After this summer’s final Odyssey, I need to make that a priority.

What about you? Did you achieve some milestones? Were you better to yourself? Did you spend more time reading, or with family and friends? Did you spend less time worrying?  Regardless, I hope today will be a good day for you to finish reflecting and start looking ahead. You don’t even need a plan. I just find that with every passing year, life becomes more precious to me; relationships with my family more important, and my friends more dear. I’ve read comments from various people who poo-poo the epithet, “Life is too short.” I disagree; if I could live 150 years and still maintain my health and my mind, I’d jump at the chance. Therefore, I plan to look at every day through that lens in order to squeeze the most joy out of every hour.

And that plan hatches this morning, as I am going to the kitchen to use my new Ninja (I know, dumb name, but awesome gadget) to make a boss smoothie, then hitting the shower and the schoolhouse. WHAT? Yeah…I never filed all the Christmas music. Oy.

Happy Day! Much love.

…New Year’s Eve?

That’s a song, you know. I say that all the time to my students, when I hear a phrase that’s part of an old song. That’s a song, you know. Sometimes, they look as if they don’t believe me and I have to prove it to them. Then they wish they hadn’t said anything. HA

But no, really: What are you doing this New Year’s Eve? The Thriller and I never seem to think far enough ahead to make reservations anywhere (it’s our anniversary today), so we rarely go out. But it’s fun anyway, because we usually do something fun around the house. Tonight, we’re getting together with Kay and Bob for pizza, snacks and Midnight in Paris. Yay! Have you seen it yet? If not, you must. It’s an emergency. It’s New Year’s Eve, and you need to get your feel-good on.

We won’t “ring in the new year” together, as K & B will also be bringing Kay’s elderly mother, Miss Kitty, and they will need to get her back at a decent hour. I rarely stay up past 10:30-11:00 lately, and “watching the ball drop” has never really been a big deal to me anyhow. Rather, I just wake up on the 1st and think, “Hey, it’s next year.”

So what’s up for you this New Year’s Eve? Anything fun planned?

OK, 2012 is almost over.  It was quite a year, yes? Boy, did it go by fast. Lots happened, too, some of which I’ll bet you’d forgotten (as I did):

• The largest internet protest ever had a pretty big effect.
• Queen Elizabeth II became only the second monarch in British history to rule for 60 years (bested only by Queen Victoria, who sat on the throne for 64).
• For the first time since 1927, a silent film won the Academy Award for Best Picture.
• Encyclopedia Brittanica ceased printing its encyclopedia collections.
• For the first time since 1977, no Pulitzer Prize was awarded for fiction. (I could make a huge snarky joke here, but I won’t. )
• German Expressionist Edvard Munch’s famous painting, The Scream, sold at auction for $119,922,500.
• Vladimir Putin won his third six-year term as president of Russia.
• American Idol completed its 11th season. Ugh.
• An Australian coroner finally concluded after 32 years that a dingo took Lindy Chamberlain’s baby.
• 
• The Walt Disney Company purchased Lucasfilm Ltd. and its rights for the Star Wars and Indiana Jones film franchises for a mere $4.05 billion.
• BP settled the Deep Horizon oil spill disaster for $4.5 billion.
• Cost of Hurricane Sandy to the state of New York: $32 billion.

Not all the news was bad. I discovered only yesterday that Netflix is streaming West Wing now. I’ve been ordering one DVD at a time for months. This could put a serious crimp in my free time, what little there is of it.

So what was newsworthy for you in 2012? Anything awesome happen? As always, I covet your articulate and compendious thoughts.

PS — Happy 29th birthday to my baby boy Lars.